Freedom of speech a privilege, not absolute right, says Salleh

"And the privilege, if abused, can sometimes be withdrawn," he said in his latest posting on his blog, sskeruak.blogspot.com.

He said there is no such thing as absolute freedom of speech.

"Even in the West where the limits of freedom have been pushed beyond what we in the East can accept and consider as acceptable, they still do have laws that regulate matters concerning slander, defamation, degrading, racism, sexism, and so on," he said.

Salleh also lamented that freedom of speech and the expressing of one’s opinion is almost taken for granted in the era of the borderless world due to the Internet.

Salleh said it is accepted that discourse and the exchanging of ideas and opinions are the foundation of advancement and learning.

"But that has to be done in a constructive, civil, and mature manner and with decorum and decency. Running someone down or the hurling of insults would be the opposite to all this. You would be considered uncouth to not observe proper rules of engagement," he said.

Salleh said problems arise when people hide behind freedom of speech and pretend that they merely seek to discuss and debate and then disagree for the sake of disagreeing.

"Politics is all about perception, so the war of perception to be able to win the hearts and minds of the people intensifies as political disagreements escalate.

"And this is when we adopt the Machiavellian doctrine of the end justifying the means by embarking on a campaign of lies and misinformation," he said.

"We cannot claim the moral high ground and say that our cause is virtuous when we are neither noble or virtuous in our methods.

"The Internet is community owned so we need to be considerate to other Internet users when we do things. While freedom of speech may be considered a right, others also have the right to not suffer indignity and harassment due to the misuse of the Internet," he said.

Concurring with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak's recent blogpost, he said the Internet is a shared property owned collectively by all global citizens, and as such all have the responsibility not to misuse it.